Leo Goto, a one-time revered player in Denver’s restaurant scene, slipped into a morass of unpaid bills and wages before he closed his short-lived Leo Goto’s Riverfront restaurant and events center on West Bowles Avenue and South Santa Fe Drive in Littleton.

Left in the wake of the late-October closure are a sea of unpaid vendors owed an estimated $100,000 that stretches back to April, according to former bookkeeper Kat Bagley.

Two weeks of unpaid wages and bounced payroll checks to roughly 15 employees add up to roughly $18,000, and holiday party and wedding reception deposits of more than $17,500 have not been refunded.

How could someone with such a stellar reputation in the restaurant business go so wrong? And on top of his financial woes, Linda, Goto’s wife of many years, filed for legal separation Nov. 16.

“He had no idea what he was doing,” said Bagley, who held numerous meetings with Goto and restaurant manager Veronica Valle, who were alarmed at the growing stack of accounts payable. “Every day he was on the phone with potential investors frantically trying to contact them to try and salvage the situation.”

Bill Curnow, who sold the building and business to Goto for $1.2 million, said he is one of Goto’s creditors who has yet to be contacted. Goto sold the property to Lucille’s, a successful chain of New Orleans-style breakfast and lunch spots, for $1.218 million.

At the time of the purchase, Lucille’s owner Fletcher Richards said plans were in the works for Goto to run the events center side of the business.

“He was going to be involved with us,” Fletcher said, “and he just disappeared.”

Efforts to reach Goto, a man who habitually answered his cellphone or returned calls, were hit and miss. I caught him on his cellphone briefly last week, when he told me he had spent roughly a month in the hospital and was still receiving outpatient care. Further attempts to reach him were unsuccessful.

Even Howard Torgove, his former partner in the Wellshire Inn, said he couldn’t get Goto to return his calls.

Torgove, who bought out Goto’s interest in the Wellshire in 2008, said he would like to help people left without a location for their event or wedding. His staff has received a list and contacted people with reservations at the former events center. There were 12 events booked with deposits paid for December through August.

Several employees and vendors have filed suit to try to recover their losses. The laundry list of vendors’ unpaid balances vary from $35.60 for Liks Ice Cream to $21,206.44 owed to Shamrock Foods Co.

Bagley, who’s known Goto since 2001, says she feels betrayed.

“I’m absolutely livid,” Bagley said. “He was writing checks he knew he couldn’t cover. He’d say, ‘Write the check, Kat, just do it.’ I said, ‘Leo, we’re not going to have any money for payroll.’ He’d say, ‘Kat, write the check.’ “

Valle, the former manager, pointed to misplaced trust in Goto that finally sank the ship.

“We trusted him,” Valle said. “Plenty of times we had conversations with Leo telling him that we have to advertise. The restaurant was only open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday. We told him we needed to extend our hours, and he didn’t listen to anyone. He said he had investors that were going to help him get out of the rut he was in. We trusted he would take care of the problem.”

In his heyday, Goto ruled the restaurant roost, working his way from dishwasher at Trader Vic’s to maitre d’ who knew all the oil-soaked rich and famous faces.

He opened his first namesake restaurant, Leo’s Place, in 1969 in a building at 16th and Broadway that was torn down to make way for the RTD bus station.

Leo’s Place was The Palm of its time, where local movers and shakers did deals over the legendary three-martini lunch.

Goto, a Japanese immigrant who came here with his family in 1942, re-emerged in the restaurant world with the Riverfront operation, which lasted six months.

EAVESDROPPING

A woman at Tortilla Marissa’s in Fort Collins:

“No, I don’t have any need for medical marijuana personally, but there are days when I wish I could get my boss some.”

Penny Parker’s column appears Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday. Listen to her on “Caplis & Silverman” between 4 and 5 p.m. Fridays on KHOW-630 AM. Call her at 303-954-5224 or e-mail pparker@denverpost.com.

Penny Parker worked for six years as a business writer at The Denver Post before joining the Rocky Mountain News as an On the Town columnist. After the newspaper's closure, she rejoined The Post in 2009. In April 2012, she left The Post again for Blacktie Colorado. She died in 2016 at the age of 62.

AirPods have become a rare public misstep for Apple. In September, Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller hailed the earbuds as the entree to a wireless future, with seamless connection to an iPhone and a five-hour battery life.

The brokerage industry’s self-regulator has asked employees fired by Wells Fargo & Co. and stripped of their securities registrations to come forward if they have concerns over their treatment, the latest sign of growing scrutiny on the bank.

Ford Motor Co. is going ahead with plans to move small-car production from the U.S. to Mexico despite President-elect Donald Trump’s recent threats to impose tariffs on companies that move work abroad.